ACCOUNTABILITY PROFILE
University of California,
Berkeley
California’s Investment in Berkeley
GRAND ASPIRATIONS built this university more than
140 years ago when Berkeley, the flagship institution of
the University of California system, was established. The
goal was to create an institution with attributes “equal
to those of Eastern Colleges,” what today are called the
Ivy League schools. This new university not only would
educate students but also serve and assist the people of
California. As a public research university, Berkeley was
charged with seeking new knowledge and discovery to
serve the public interest, and providing Californians
access to its excellent educational opportunities. Public
research universities are pivotal in realizing society’s
potential for opportunity, innovation, social justice, and
prosperity — extending the public good for the benefit
of all. Today, Berkeley is recognized as a leader among the
world’s universities in offering true breadth, access, and
comprehensive excellence.
As UC’s oldest campus, Berkeley is home to
many historic sites, including South Hall [the first UC
building, constructed in 1873], Hearst Greek Theatre
[1903], California Hall [1905], Hearst Memorial Mining
Building [1907], the Campanile [1914], Doe Library [1917],
and Wheeler Hall [1917]. The campus has many worldclass research museums,
field stations, and other
research centers, along with a library collection that ranks as one of the
“Berkeley — the university — seems to
best in the nation. In 2007 the Association of Research Libraries ranked
Berkeley’s library among the top five university research libraries in North
me, more and more, to be California’s
America. Its rare and specialized collections, such as the Bancroft Library’s
highest, most articulate idea of itself.”
Mark Twain Papers and Project [the world’s largest collection of Twain
materials], serve educators and scholars from around the state and the
— JOAN DIDION ’56
Author
world. In addition, the Berkeley Art Museum has diverse collections of
more than 13,000 works, and the Pacific Film Archive includes 10,000
films. Berkeley also offers the Bay Area top-quality performing arts
through Cal Performances and other theater and music programs, science programs for young people
at the Lawrence Hall of Science, an athletics program with 27 intercollegiate sports and many Olympic
athletes, and hundreds of workshops, lectures, and symposia that are free and open to the public.
California’s investment in Berkeley has paid off: the campus has been an engine of innovation.
Breakthroughs and new ideas from Berkeley include the discovery of vitamins E and K; development
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of the flu vaccine; isolation of the human polio virus
and the gene associated with breast cancer; design of
the first cyclotron to support medical research; draft of
the first no-fault divorce
law; development of the
“By our yardstick, UC Berkeley is about
UNIX computer operating
system; the concept of
the best thing for America we can find.
open-source software;
It’s good by all of our measurements.”
invention of the groundfault interrupter to protect
— WASHINGTON MONTHLY
from electric shocks;
and discovery of planets
beyond our solar system. Berkeley also holds a place on
the periodic table — Berkelium is one of 10 transuranium
elements first synthesized by Nobel laureate and later
chancellor Glenn T. Seaborg — a distinction unmatched
by any other university.
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eVhinZVg^cXajYZi]ZhZ/
BERKELEY WAS RANKED the top public
university nationally for undergraduate education.
[U.S. News & World Report, 2009]
BERKELEY PROVIDED ACCESS to more Pell
Grant recipients [typically undergraduates from
families with incomes below $45,000] than all the
Ivy League schools combined.
BERKELEY AWARDED more Ph.D.s than any university.
MORE GRADUATE-STUDENT WINNERS of prestigious National Science Foundation [NSF]
Fellowships chose to attend Berkeley than any other university.
BERKELEY’S YOUNG FACULTY scientists tied with those at Harvard to win more Sloan
Research Fellowships than professors at any other university. Also on Berkeley’s faculty today
are seven Nobel laureates and several hundred members of the National Academies of Education,
Engineering, and Sciences, plus recipients of other top national and international honors.
IN TOTAL RESEARCH and development expenditures, Berkeley ranked second to MIT among
institutions without a medical school.
PRESIDENT OBAMA named Berkeley professors Steven Chu [Secretary of Energy] and Christina
Romer [chair of the Council of Economic Advisers] to top posts in his administration.
The Berkeley Difference
AMONG BERKELEY’S HALLMARKS are an unmatched breadth and depth of academic programs;
comprehensive excellence is a campus priority, with academic and research programs consistently
leading the nation in science and engineering, humanities and the arts, social sciences, and in a
range of professional schools. Faculty members and students engage with great effectiveness in
multidisciplinary, collaborative approaches across all of these fields, discovering new clean energy
resources, abating global poverty, mitigating life-threatening diseases, reducing conflict, and exploring
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other frontiers not yet imagined. In addition, Berkeley supports and celebrates great individual
scholarship, and basic research carried out at Berkeley yields discoveries whose impact is transformative,
not just incremental.
Berkeley offers degrees in 14 schools and colleges, focusing on
6bZg^XVÉh7ZhiEjWa^XJc^kZgh^i^Zh!'%%.
letters and science [arts, humanities, and physical, biological, and social
sciences], business, chemistry, education, engineering, environmental
U.S. News & World Report
design, information, journalism, law, natural resources, optometry, public
1. University of California, Berkeley
health, public policy, and social welfare.
2. University of Virginia
Undergraduate students may choose from more than 100 academic
3. University of California, Los Angeles
programs, each presenting different educational opportunities and
4. University of Michigan
experiences; each year, some 13,000 undergraduate classes, labs, and
5. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
sections are taught. Berkeley’s undergraduate program has been ranked
6. College of William and Mary
the best at any public university in the United States for more than 10
7. Georgia Institute of Technology
years by U.S. News & World Report. For Berkeley’s graduate students, 96
7. University of California, San Diego
doctoral, 87 master’s, and 32 professional-degree programs span all schools
7. University of Wisconsin, Madison
and colleges, where each year more than 8,000 graduate courses are
10. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
offered. In its comprehensive studies of American graduate programs, the
11. University of Washington
National Research Council has consistently ranked Berkeley among the
12. University of California, Davis
top in nearly every discipline. More recently, in U.S. News & World Report’s
12. University of California, Irvine
graduate-program rankings in business, education, engineering, and law,
12. University of California, Santa Barbara
Berkeley placed in the top 10 in each discipline.
Berkeley’s faculty is among the finest in the world. With 20 Nobel
laureates since 1939 among their numbers, Berkeley’s professors have garnered distinctions that cross
disciplines, ranging from four Pulitzer Prize winners and a U.S. Poet Laureate to three recipients of the
Fields Medal in mathematics. Though Berkeley has no medical school, its faculty includes 11 elected
members of the Institute of Medicine and 13 Howard
Hughes Medical Institute investigators. In addition,
Berkeley honors its own with nearly 400 endowed chairs
[25% of the faculty]. The campus also hosts some 1,100
postdoctoral fellows, in the last five years a 50% increase
of talented scholars choosing to study at Berkeley.
At Berkeley, all
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faculty — from the most
222 American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows
junior to the most senior
74 Fulbright Scholars
— teach, and students are
360 Guggenheim Fellows
the direct beneficiaries of
28 MacArthur Fellows
the excellence of Berkeley’s
8 National Academy of Education members
programs and professors.
84 National Academy of Engineering members
They choose Berkeley for
129 National Academy of Sciences members
the opportunity to be
12 National Medals of Science
taught by some of the
1 National Poet Laureate
world’s best. They can
61 National Science Foundation
hear journalism professor
Young Investigator Awards
Michael Pollan [author of
7 Nobel Prizes
The Omnivore’s Dilemma]
4 Pulitzer Prizes
discuss food politics,
104 Sloan Research Fellows (for young faculty)
biochemical engineering
professor Jay Keasling
explain his breakthroughs in synthesizing an inexpensive
cure for malaria, or MacArthur Foundation “genius”
fellowship winner and history faculty member Maria
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Mavroudi outline Greek and Arabic cultural interaction in the Middle Ages. Such professors are among
many at Berkeley who are creating new paradigms in their fields, and bringing that excitement to the
classroom.
A Berkeley education, however, extends beyond coursework. Students also learn from the
diversity of their peers, from the international mix of the campus community, and from the campus’s
continuing tradition of cutting-edge activism. Home to the Free Speech Movement in the 1960s, Berkeley
has also been a leader in disability rights and studies, ethnic studies, and gender and women’s studies. It
is the first campus to have a vice chancellor dedicated to promoting equity and inclusion. And for many
students, commitment to activism and service does not end with graduation: as one example, more
Berkeley graduates have joined the Peace Corps than graduates from any other college campus.
Berkeley’s Mantra: Access and Excellence
BERKELEY provides a unique educational experience that prepares students to live in an increasingly
global and multicultural society. The campus is no ivory tower; it is part of the world, and it reflects an
amazing breadth and diversity in its academic pursuits and in the students who come to Berkeley to
prepare to be tomorrow’s leaders.
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BERKELEY LIVES UP TO ITS PROMISE as a public university by providing access to this educational
experience for more than 25,000 undergraduate students [more than three times the number educated
by Stanford, Harvard, or Berkeley’s other private peers]. Berkeley graduates more undergraduates who go
on to earn Ph.D.s than any other university in the nation. In educating such a large number of students
so well — and at a fraction of the cost of attending its elite, private peer universities — Berkeley
provides a transformational experience for its students
and an effective conduit for economic advancement, both
for individual students and for California.
Admission to Berkeley is highly competitive; 21.6%
of its more than 48,000 freshmen applicants are admitted,
as are 26.1% of approximately 12,300 transfer applicants.
Of the 6,273 new students for fall 2008, 68% entered as
freshmen and 32% as transfers. Of the freshmen entrants,
87% graduated from public high schools, and 90% of
transfers came from California community colleges. The
students who enroll are the best of the best, often ranking
at the top of their high-school class and community
colleges, with a broad range of leadership and diverse life
experiences that greatly enhance the academic experience
Berkeley offers. In the UC Undergraduate Experience
Survey [UCUES, spring 2008], 89% of Berkeley’s
graduating seniors said they were satisfied with their
overall academic experience, 84% agreed Berkeley had a
strong commitment to undergraduate education, and 85%
were satisfied with the value of their education for the
price they had paid.
Berkeley is proud of its multidimensional
undergraduate diversity. Its pledge is to serve California
students, and today 90% of its undergraduates are
California residents. To expose these students to
perspectives and experiences from beyond the state, 7%
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of undergraduates come
from 48 other states,
and 3% are international
students, representing
more than 80 countries.
7,889
Berkeley undergraduates
come from various ethnic
Undergraduates from California, fall 2008
90%
backgrounds:
Undergraduates who will be the first in their
family to graduate from a four-year college, 2007 30%
42% are Asian/Pacific
Islander, 31% white,
Applicants for freshman admission, fall 2009
48,634
12% Chicano/Latino,
Admitted freshmen, fall 2009
21.6%
3% African American,
Average high-school GPA (on an unweighted
4.o scale) of admitted freshmen, fall 2008
3.82
and 1% American Indian.
Within those categories
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is an even wider range of
130 Academic departments
ethnicity and cultural
14 Colleges and schools
diversity. In addition 53%
350 Degree programs
of undergraduates
are women.
Undergraduates also come from diverse economic
backgrounds. Asked by UCUES in 2008 to characterize
their own family economic status, 2% of undergraduates
said they were wealthy, 29% upper-middle or professionalmiddle class, 37% middle class, 20% working class, and
11% low income or poor. Berkeley and UC are committed
to providing access to qualified students, regardless of
their means. As early as 1897, Berkeley offered financial aid
to deserving students with financial need; today, nearly
one-third of Berkeley’s undergraduates come from families earning less than $45,000 a year, and 30% will
be the first in their families to graduate from a four-year college. Low-income students receive need-based
scholarships and government grants.
As members of such a diverse student body, 86% of undergraduates say they feel they belong at
Berkeley and believe students of different backgrounds are respected on campus. Berkeley’s diversity is
an important element in educating students to be citizens and leaders
in a complex state and global environment, and it is a unique aspect
of the Berkeley experience. Reinforcing this educational value, every
“The teachers at Berkeley had given
undergraduate must take at least one American Cultures course, offered
in more than 40 departments to introduce students to the many cultures
me the best they had, all they knew.
of the U.S. through a comparative framework. The American Cultures
It was a miracle of an education.”
curriculum has been recognized as a national model for its integrative and
comparative analyses of race, culture, and ethnicity in the United States.
—MAXINE HONG KINGSTON ’62
Its courses represent a unique departure from existing approaches to
teaching about diversity in the United States. Instead of focusing on one
or two ethnic groups, American Cultures courses at Berkeley explore the complexity of ethnicity, culture,
and pluralism, and their influences on the ways that Americans think about themselves and approach
the issues and problems that confront our society.
No matter where students are from or what experiences they bring, most succeed at Berkeley:
the first-year retention rate for freshmen is 97%, for transfer students 94%, and the six-year graduation
rate for freshmen and the four-year graduation rate for transfers both stand at 90%. [Graduation
rates have increased significantly over time; 20 years ago, Berkeley’s was 74% for freshmen and 70% for
transfers.] Of those who graduated in 2007–08, the freshmen time-to-degree was four years and for
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Total undergraduates, fall 2008
Bachelor’s degrees awarded, 2007–08
Undergraduates receiving financial aid
Pell Grant recipients (undergraduates from
low-income families)
25,151
6,960
65%
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transfers 2.2 years, including students
with both single and multiple majors.
By the time they graduate, Berkeley
students report significant increases in
their understanding of a specific field and
in their analytical and critical thinking
skills [two measures that apply to all
academic programs]: 78% of graduating
students surveyed in UCUES rated their
understanding of a specific field as very
good or excellent, up from 5% at entry, and
82% measured their analytical and critical
thinking skills as good or excellent, up
from 21% at entry.
Because of the diversity of Berkeley’s academic programs, it is difficult to develop a single set of
metrics to measure educational outcomes. The campuswide Undergraduate Student Learning Initiative
is supporting academic departments in establishing education goals and evaluation procedures for all
undergraduate programs. Discipline-specific and faculty-driven, the initiative provides a framework
for each department to generate its goals organically, as part of the faculty’s ongoing dialogues about
curricula. To date, 70% of programs have completed drafts articulating their desired outcomes for
students, and another 20% are working on those drafts now.
In 2007–08, almost 7,000 students received a bachelor’s degree from Berkeley. Berkeley’s 2008
Career Destination Survey shows that 23% of graduates enroll directly in graduate school, 56% begin
full-time employment, and 21% pursue other endeavors the year after graduation. Almost 80% intend to
earn a higher degree at some point [24% doctorate, 20% master’s, 13% medical degree, 12% business, and
10% law].
The ultimate value of a Berkeley undergraduate education is the impact it has on the intellectual
and personal lives of students. The unparalleled Berkeley campus environment reinforces people’s
connections to one another, and Berkeley research, teaching, and service chart ways for students to give
back to society and change the world. Asked to name their educational goals, Berkeley undergraduates
say they want more than skills for future employment. UCUES responses show that students appreciate
the opportunity to establish their personal values and code of ethics, and to learn the importance
of service to their community. Last spring, 87% of undergraduates said that if they had to choose a
university again, they would choose Berkeley.
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GRADUATE STUDENTS play a critical role in the success of research
and undergraduate education at Berkeley, and their excellence is a
“I came to Berkeley as a graduate student
key contributor to Berkeley’s worldwide prestige and leadership.
The outstanding quality of Berkeley’s graduate students is a prime
to work with the world’s greatest faculty.
incentive in attracting the best faculty to the campus — and in
I came back to Berkeley as a professor to
keeping them at Berkeley despite frequent attractive offers from other
top institutions. Engaged and innovative thinkers, Berkeley’s graduate
work with the world’s greatest graduate
students are prized by faculty as up-and-coming colleagues who
students”
collaborate on research and scholarly projects; as insightful young
scholars whose ideas show professors new possibilities in their fields;
—YUAN T. LEE, Ph.D. ’65
as essential instructors to guide and engage undergraduates in labs
Professor & Recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1986
and discussion sections; and as lively participants in advanced
courses and seminars, where professors explore subject areas in
greater depth. Graduate students routinely extend the boundaries of scholarly work with original
insights, analyses, and creations. As researchers they often make significant advances in a given field,
ACCOUNTABILITY PROFILE
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develop knowledge that has real-world applications, or lay the foundation for a major breakthrough that
will come later in their careers. Eighteen Nobel laureates and 28 National Medal of Science recipients
hold graduate degrees from Berkeley.
Berkeley’s graduate program is also highly competitive; only 16% of the more than 34,000
applicants are admitted, and several departments have an admission rate as low as 5%. Over half of those
admitted choose to enter Berkeley for graduate studies; their decision is based in part on the financialaid package universities are able to offer, and Berkeley competes with better-endowed private peers in
enrolling new Ph.D. students. In 2004 the UC Office of the President’s Admit Survey showed that only
45% of admitted doctoral students rated the level of financial support
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they were offered by Berkeley as excellent or good, compared to a 74%
Total graduate students, fall 2008
10,258
rating for peer universities. Furthermore, in the 2008 Graduate Division
Master’s and professional degrees awarded,
Midpoint Survey, only 59% of Ph.D. students said they were satisfied
2007–08
2,406
with the financial support they received at Berkeley. Berkeley is in the
Doctoral degrees awarded, 2007–08
865
midst of an ambitious fundraising campaign to increase its endowment
for graduate fellowships, allowing the campus to offer higher levels of
financial assistance to recruit outstanding graduate students.
Berkeley graduate students make up about 30% of Berkeley’s total student body; 41% of them
are master’s students and 59% are doctoral students. They come from across the country and around
the world: almost 20% of those in graduate programs are international students, from 95 countries.
Of the domestic students, approximately 44% are white, 18% are Asian/Pacific Islander, and 10% are
underrepresented students [African-American, American Indian, and Chicano/Latino]. Women make up
45% of all graduate students at Berkeley.
Enthusiastic, engaged, and innovative, graduate students provide an important bridge between
the faculty and undergraduates. Graduate students make a vital contribution as teachers and mentors
to undergraduates, sharing their knowledge and insights in the classroom and in office hours. They
assist in many lower-division courses for which they
have a particular enthusiasm — courses that are usually
among the core requirements for majors. This teaching
collaboration between faculty and graduate students
gives undergraduates a rich educational experience and
launches many graduate students on teaching careers of
their own. Spring 2008 UCUES data shows that 88% of
graduating seniors were satisfied with graduate-student
teaching, compared to a 93% satisfaction rate with faculty
teaching.
Graduate students are also attentive mentors,
helping undergraduates build self-confidence
and discover their intellectual selves. They are role
models for undergraduates looking toward academic
and professional careers. It is not surprising that
undergraduates often seek out their graduate-student
instructors for one-on-one help with course matters, as
well as with academic, career, and even personal advice.
Over the past 10 years, Berkeley has awarded more
doctoral degrees than any other university [according
to NSF statistics]. In 2007–08, Berkeley awarded 865
Ph.D.s and 2,406 master’s and other professional degrees.
Doctoral graduation rates have increased dramatically
since the 1970s, from 49% to 61% today; master’s
graduation rates have steadily improved from 75% to 88%
over that same period. Time-to-degree measurements have
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stayed relatively consistent since the 1970s, with recent rates at 6.8 years for those who earned Ph.D.s and
2.1 years for master’s recipients.
Berkeley placement data show that, while many graduate students come from other states or
nations, many choose to stay in California for their first job. A net gain of 50% more Ph.D.s
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are in California, thanks to what some call the “brain gain” — non-Californians who earn
a Ph.D. at Berkeley and stay to work in California. This influx of Berkeley doctoral-degree
UC BERKELEY HAS ONE
recipients is a huge benefit to the California economy, in terms of both taxes received
OF THE TOP FIVE researchfrom the higher salaries of workers with advanced degrees and of the multiplier effect
university libraries in North
of innovation, new businesses, and emerging technologies developed by these Berkeley
America, according to a 2007
assessment by the Association of graduates.
The NSF Survey of Earned Doctorates, which tracks career plans of doctoral students,
Research Libraries
shows that many doctoral students do not have jobs at graduation. However, Berkeley’s
placement survey, administered a year after graduation, paints a fuller picture. For Ph.D. students
graduating between 2001–02 and 2005–06, almost 60% were employed in an academic setting [a
college, university, or national laboratory]; 20% in business; 6% in government, K-12 education, or
hospitals; 5% in other areas or self-employed; and 9% unknown. Of those employed in an academic
setting, 40% were already in tenure-track faculty positions. For arts and humanities and social-science
Ph.D. students, placement in academic careers was highest; in these broad areas, 72% were employed at a
college or university in their first year, and 56% were already in tenure-track positions.
As with undergraduates, Berkeley graduate students report high satisfaction rates with their
academic programs. The 2008 Graduate Division Midpoint Survey found that 88% of Ph.D. students were
satisfied with their graduate academic program, and 89% indicated they would choose Berkeley again for
graduate studies.
Serving the Public and Our Community
BERKELEY’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO SOCIETY can also be
seen through the volunteer activities of its faculty and
students.
Along with teaching
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and research, public
EACH YEAR , more than 4,000 Cal students do
service is a cornerstone of
volunteer work
the UC mission. Faculty
members make a broad
BERKELEY IS THE ONLY university that has
range of public-service
produced more than 3,000 Peace Corps volunteers
contributions at the
A QUARTER OF A MILLION Californians
international, national,
benefit from more than 200 community-service
state, and local levels.
programs at UC Berkeley and 300,000 publicThey serve on government
service hours contributed annually
panels and committees,
where their expertise aids
in solving many of society’s most complex problems, from
energy to transportation, and from public health and
healthcare to urban design and planning, among many
others. The Graduate School of Education plays an active
role in K-12 education; faculty contribute to teaching
at CAL Prep, Berkeley’s charter school in Oakland;
the school runs the Principal Leadership Institute,
preparing leaders for K-12 public schools; and the Cal
Teach Program supports math, science, and engineering
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students interested in becoming K-12 math and science
teachers. Public-service programs also abound in the arts
at Berkeley; an example is the Young Musicians Program,
providing year-round private music instruction to
exceptionally gifted low-income students, at no cost to
their families. Part of an array of programs reaching out to
young people through Berkeley’s Center for Educational
Partnerships, this program relies on support from the
Berkeley music faculty.
Each year, thousands of Berkeley students do
volunteer work. The Cal Corps Public Service Center
connects students with many campus programs that
serve the community and provide service-learning
opportunities. Some examples include Berkeley United in
Literacy Development [BUILD], which provides literacy
and math tutoring to K-8 youth in Berkeley and Oakland;
Coaching Corps, which trains students through youth
sports organizations; and Greening Berkeley, inspiring
student involvement in environmental issues through
volunteer opportunities in local neighborhoods.
Return on an
Investment in Research
IN EVERY FIELD its people pursue, Berkeley is a
leader in research. One measure of this leadership is the
confidence placed in Berkeley’s faculty and research programs by federal, state, and private entities that
award funds for research. These research dollars are expressed annually at all universities as “research
and development expenditures.” Among universities with no medical school, Berkeley ranks second,
behind the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in
total research and development expenditures. Among
GZhZVgX]!'%%,Ä%all universities, Berkeley ranks fourth in research and
development expenditures, when medical research
$504.2 MILLION in research funding
expenses are excluded and expenditures for Berkeley
#2 IN THE U.S. in research expenditures, among universities
faculty that are administered through the Lawrence
without medical schools
Berkeley National Laboratory [LBNL] are included. [Two
caveats are necessary in considering R&D expenditures.
#4 IN THE U.S in research expenditures, among all universities
First, figures for universities with medical schools
(excluding medical expenditures and including research at LBNL)
combine both the medical-school and academic research
expenditures; Berkeley does not have a medical school.
75% from federal, state, and public sources
Second, many Berkeley professors conduct their research
19% from nonprofit sources
through LBNL; those dollars are not included in standard
6% from the private sector
reporting.]
155 New inventions reported, bringing Berkeley’s total to 2,086
Investment in university research is in large
measure responsible for the phenomenal increase in
output of the North American economy over the past five decades. Berkeley’s academic breadth and
depth are a major advantage in its success at multidisciplinary research that both grows the California
economy and addresses complex issues facing society. Basic research — the quest for new knowledge,
new understanding, and new discoveries — will always be a staple of Berkeley’s endeavors. But equally
ACCOUNTABILITY PROFILE
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exciting are the possibilities that have emerged through
an assortment of interdisciplinary research efforts. Among
them are programs with limitless potential for the public
good; the following are a few of many:
ENERGY BIOSCIENCES INSTITUTE, working to create clean, sustainable sources of energy and address climate change,
BLUM CENTER FOR DEVELOPING
ECONOMIES, examining real-world solutions to combat poverty,
QB3 [California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences], developing solutions to the world’s
most urgent biological problems,
CITRIS [Center for Information Technology
Research in the Interest of Society], creating IT solutions for pressing social, environmental, and healthcare problems,
BERKELEY STEM CELL CENTER, uniting scientists, physicians, and humanities and legal scholars committed to this new technology,
CENTER FOR COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY,
supporting advances in computational methods and genomics that will aid the development of medical treatments,
HELEN WILLS NEUROSCIENCE INSTITUTE, advancing our understanding of the brain and
disorders that affect it,
BERKELEY CENTER FOR NEW MEDIA, analyzing and helping shape new media from the
perspectives of design, information technology, and communication,
BERKELEY DIVERSITY RESEARCH INITIATIVE, focusing on the nature of multicultural
societies and the ways they flourish and benefit their members,
CENTER FOR GLOBAL METROPOLITAN STUDIES, merging work in a dozen departments
studying issues in cities around the world,
BERKELEY NANOSCIENCES AND NANOENGINEERING INSTITUTE, expanding research
and educational activities in this booming field,
GREATER GOOD SCIENCE CENTER, working toward the scientific understanding of
positive emotions and behaviors, including happiness, compassion, and altruism, and
BERKELEY INSTITUTE OF THE ENVIRONMENT, bringing together hundreds of faculty and
students who are addressing the planet’s most critical environmental challenges.
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CALIFORNIA’S IS THE SEVENTH LARGEST ECONOMY in the world, and Berkeley has long been
an engine for its growth. Its research, graduates, and public-service programs contribute to job creation,
economic development, and a better quality of life for all Californians.
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The economic impact of the campus is deep in the Bay Area. In 2007–08, UC
Berkeley spent more than $1.6 billion in a combination of salaries [$933 million], goods
and services [$444 million], and construction [$214 million] — 81% of this spending
was in the Bay Area. A stable source of jobs for the region, the campus employed 25,700
people in 2007–08, making it one of the largest employers in the area and the largest in
the East Bay. Berkeley’s spending in the region has generated an additional 13,100 jobs
for other Bay Area residents. In addition, Berkeley alumni have founded or lead hundreds
of California companies, including Intel, Chiron, Google, Gap, PowerBar, and Sun Microsystems, and
alumni are leaders in academia, the arts, industry and business, technology, and government.
6ajbc^
Living alumni
431,500
Nobel Prizes won by alumni, including
those with graduate and
undergraduate degrees
24
Berkeley’s Challenge for the Future
BERKELEY FACES CHALLENGES to maintaining its leadership in higher education and research,
and has identified five key goals for the coming years to help address them:
1.
TWENTY YEARS AGO, Berkeley received roughly half of its funding from the state, and
today state support — the campus’s general funds — has dropped to less than 30% of the budget.
Berkeley must develop a sustainable funding model to maintain its academic excellence, while
continuing to provide access to students from all economic backgrounds. Private giving is one part of
that model: The Campaign for Berkeley is on pace to raise $3 billion by mid-2013 to support faculty,
research, student financial aid, undergraduate education, facilities, and programs.
2.
BERKELEY ’S HIGHEST PRIORITY is to maintain its
academic excellence, and that starts with continuing to recruit and
retain the best faculty, in spite of competition from private peers such as
Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale. Further, the campus must
provide competitive salaries to its outstanding staff members, who play a
key role in the success of campus programs and operations.
Today, an additional $26.5 million per year would be needed
— DANIEL E. KOSHLAND JR.’41
to bring Berkeley’s faculty salaries up to the average of private peers.
Professor, 1965–2007
Additional monies are needed for facilities, laboratories, and other
support when new faculty are hired; these start-up funds average
$340,000, ranging from $65,000 to $1.325 million. In 2007–08, Berkeley
had 1,480 ladder-rank faculty, significantly fewer than its budgeted number; the campus has had to leave
faculty positions unfilled, using the money saved to pay competitive salaries to retain current professors
and start-up costs to launch the careers of promising new scholars. A generous $113 million gift from the
Hewlett Foundation is a major step toward addressing this issue; The Campaign for Berkeley is seeking
matching funds to endow 100 faculty chairs, and by spring 2009 the campus is half-way to that goal.
“There is no clear line between research
and teaching, education and public
service. As in every good symbiotic
relationship, everyone benefits.”
3.
AS A PUBLIC UNIVERSITY, BERKELEY IS COMMITTED to remaining financially
accessible to qualified undergraduates, regardless of their means, and to providing financial support to
graduate students, competitive with what they can receive at private universities. During this time of
fiscal constraints, Berkeley chose not to cut its undergraduate enrollment, in order to provide access to
California’s deserving students. Approximately 40% of undergraduates receive loans and have an average
debt of $14,453 when they graduate. Projections show that without action, the amount undergraduates
are expected to pay each year through loans, work-study, or family contributions [self-help] could nearly
double in 10 years, from about $8,500 a year now to $16,400. Berkeley is working though several avenues
to keep self-help in check.
For doctoral students, their decision to enroll at Berkeley can be determined largely by the offer
of financial support they receive. In a 2004 UC survey, of the newly admitted doctoral students who
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said that the amount of financial support offered was “extremely important,” only 19%
enrolled at Berkeley when the campus’s offer of aid was $1,000 or less than that of a peer
institution. However, 88% chose Berkeley if the offer was $1,000 or higher than that of
another top school.
The Campaign for Berkeley aims to raise $300 million to endow undergraduate
scholarships and financial aid and $340 million to endow new graduate-student
fellowships.
4.
AS THE OLDEST UC CAMPUS, Berkeley must improve its aging
physical infrastructure, including addressing seismic upgrades, deferred maintenance,
and technology issues. Many seismic retrofits have been completed in the last decade,
and the campus goal is to complete 63.6% of seismic projects by June 30, 2010. With
more than 725 buildings, 17 million gross square feet of interior space, and 15 million
square feet of land, Berkeley’s instructional and research space and systems are in need
of reinvestment. State formulas used in the past for capital funding are outdated and
disadvantage older campuses like Berkeley. With a significant portion of the capital
budget going to seismic upgrades, additional funds must be identified. Today, Berkeley
is able to spend only $5 million a year on a list of $600 million in deferred-maintenance
projects. In addition, today courses and research initiatives reach around the world
through Web-based video, audio, and teleconferencing; to ensure all segments of
the campus can reap future benefits of information technology, Berkeley needs a
sustainable funding model that would provide $10 million annually for this need.
5.
BERKELEY has a long and proud tradition of supporting equal rights, and
the campus has made equity and inclusion one of its highest priorities. The new Vice
Chancellor for Equity and Inclusion is responsible for developing and implementing
a 10-year strategic plan to address equity for women and underrepresented groups
among faculty, students, and staff. Specific goals include eliminating inter-group disparities in
enrollment, retention, and graduation rates of undergraduate and graduate students; reducing
inter-group disparities in hiring and retention of faculty; improving knowledge-sharing between the
university and local communities; and improving the perception and experience of the university by
underrepresented communities in California.
“We look to the future with confidence and vision
to excel by every measure, advance the frontiers
of knowledge, and lead the way in learning,
discovery, and service to the greater good.”
— ROBERT
R J. BIRGENEAU
Chancellor
As the top-ranked public university in the nation,
Berkeley holds a singular place in American higher
education. Its plans for the future are ambitious: maintain
Berkeley’s excellence and extend its leadership, broaden its
interdisciplinary research contributions, assure equity and
inclusion for all, and ensure access for qualified students.
Even in difficult economic times, the campus will continue
to do the hard, creative work to make progress on all of
these fronts — and to sustain Berkeley as a precious asset
for California and resource for the world.
Photos and quotes are courtesy of the “Thanks to Berkeley…” PhotoBooth project of The Campaign for Berkeley. The entire
collection from the project is online at campaign.berkeley.edu.
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